Mcfarlane Toys Shriek - Batman Beyond Future's End Build a fig

The Future's End line, except for Batman Beyond and Batgirl Beyond, is something I would never have purchased otherwise. That said, I enjoyed the animated series and dig the character design. Mostly though, I bought just enough to buy parts for the Jokerbot I figure what does it hurt to buy two more?! Capitalism wins again. 

I never knew about Shriek, maybe I missed the episode? Anyway, Walter Shreeve, a sound engineer drove his company into the ground, lucky for him Derek Powers acquired his company. He built a sound suit capable of demolition using sound waves, but Powers had other ideas. He commands him to kill Bruce Wayne, who is luckily saved by Batman. 

The look of the figure is pretty sweet. Whether you know or like this character, he seems to sub in easily for robot minion cannon fodder. I like how they handled the energy effect and the lights. Other than that, doing just a few colours with textured suit pieces is definitely McFarlane's wheelhouse. 

McFarlane Toys Solomon Grundy - Arkham City

 

Solomon Grundy has a few different origin stories. I believe the name (but not the origin story) is inspired by the 1842 English nursery rhyme of the same name: 

Solomon Grundy,
Born on a Monday,
Christened on Tuesday,
Married on Wednesday,
Took ill on Thursday,
Grew worse on Friday,
Died on Saturday,
Buried on Sunday,
That was the end,
Of Solomon Grundy.

This poem is quoted in the game, but the origins of the character differ. Initially, in the late 19th century, a wealthy merchant named Cyrus Gold is murdered and his body is disposed of in Slaughter Swamp. Fifty years later he comes back as a revenant type supervillain and occasionally anti-hero. He is initially a villain for Alan Scott's Green Lantern but crosses over and becomes a problem for other heroes. He's basically unkillable with both super strength and stamina. He seems to be partly made of the same life force as Swamp thing and is nearly invulnerable to fire, cold, magic and other energy attacks. 

In Arkham City his origin story is a bit different: first appearing in Batman: Arkham City, this version was a merchant who was murdered and had his body dumped in a swamp-like Lazarus Pit, where a strange thunderstorm combined with the pit's mystical properties to resurrect him as an effectively immortal zombie-like monster. He temporarily became part of a travelling circus before he was found by Ra's al Ghul, who realized the swamp's true nature and took him to Wonder City. Seeking to understand the pit's properties, Ra's repeatedly murdered Grundy until Wonder City was eventually shut down and Gotham City built over it, with the Iceberg Lounge being built over Grundy's prison. After the Penguin finds him, he uses Grundy to kill traitorous underlings and attempts to kill Batman, who eventually defeats Grundy.

McFarlane Toys DC Multiverse Dark Father - Dark Knights: Death Metal

 

The Dark Father is a Batman from one of the Dark Multiverses that defeated Darkseid and acquired his powers as well as mastery of the Anti-Life equation. He even changed the parademons into pararobins! Interesting. Anyway, he is put in charge of powering the sun or at least making the captured Superman of the new world power it anyway. The Death Metal Batman and Wonderwoman infiltrate...the Sun I guess! and free Superman, who punches Dark Father out into space! Theatrical to say the least. 

This figure isn't what I was looking for, but overall it's not bad. After buying the Death Metal figure line, you assemble all the pieces, and they fit pretty nicely, but not so tight you are worried about disassembling him. He has pretty decent range of motion, especially in the legs. The cape is a bit boring, flat with a peg in piece at the back and front to keep it from flopping everywhere. I do like the cracked skin details and metal look to him, though it's not like, a very strong presentation. I kinda wish he came with his Omega beam gun from the comics and maybe a smirky look instead of the blank look we got, but what are you gonna do?

4th Annual Top 10 Most Viewed Figures!

 It's a few (*coughs many coughs) months late but I've finally gotten around to the 4th annual most viewed figures! This year I've dived headfirst into the absolute INSANE world that is McFarlane toys in a big way. As in, I've had to really push myself away from not collecting EVERY DC Multiverse toy that came along. Some were easy decisions (often mediocre face sculpts from live-action DC films) and others were tempting but from comic lines, I had never read nor cared a lot about (White Knight, Last Knight on Earth etc). Advance warning this list of 50% McFarlane, 20% import, and 30% older figures I recently got hold of. I did recently get a Spiderman PS4 figure THINKING it was the real thing but sadly it is a knockoff. Maybe one day if I get the real one I'll do another comparison. 

So here are the ten that you liked clicking on! 

McFarlane Toys The Merciless (Build-a-Figure) - Dark Knights: Metal

 It is assembled! It was very satisfying putting the figure together since it looks glorious! I think overall it was worth buying Wave 2 just to get this beast in hand. The Merciless is another member of the Dark Knights, led by Batman Who Laughs to give rise to a permanent Dark Multiverse. The Merciless is the dark mirrored reflection of a Batman who assumes the powers of Ares. Bruce Wayne of Earth -12 grows to be Batman in typical fashion. Ares, the God of War, creates a helmet that amplifies his powers a hundredfold. For a couple of years, Wonder Woman and Batman work together to stop him from conquering, falling in love in between. 

In a final conflict, Diana appears dead after being incapacitated by Ares, and Batman takes the helmet and dons it. Gaining incredible strength, magma control, pathokinesis (the ability to inspire rage and a desire to fight), and energy absorption, he kills Ares. He begins believing his old code to be worthless and becomes The Merciless. After awakening, Diana fears what the power will do to Bruce, and tries to remove it. So addicted to the helmet's influence, he kills her as well. He goes on a rampage that involves killing nearly every hero. His fight goes all the way to Themiscara and the Greek Gods. His world is about to end in the Dark Multiverse when Batman Who Laughs appears and recruits him to be part of his Dark Knights.